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Friday, October 22, 2010

Same question: Lundqvist or Biron?

In past seasons, there wouldn’t have been any speculation over this. Henrik Lundqvist sits one game as his backup starts, then he goes right back in the next game. But veteran Marty Biron has the potential to be the most proficient backup Lundqvist has played with. Chances are, Lundqvist will be in net tomorrow night when the Rangers are at Boston and will also play Sunday against the Devils at Madison Square Garden.

But coach John Tortorella has also said he wants to give Biron the opportunity to play in consecutive games if he plays well. And that he did in making 24 saves in his Rangers’ debut in Thursday night’s 2-1 win here in Toronto. Tortorella said after the game he didn’t know if Lundqvist would play in the back-to-back games and neither Lundqvist nor Tortorella would say who was starting at Boston. And Lundqvist genuinely seemed like he wasn’t sure. And Lundqvist also downplayed the notion that one of the reasons for him not playing Thursday night was for him to get a solid week of practice in.

“When you have two guys, sometimes you don’t have to look for reasons,” Lundqvist said. “Marty is a good goalie. It was time for him to play. But, yeah, it was a good time this week for practice and to focus on the details of the game.

“I don’t know what the plan is for this weekend,” Lundqvist said. “I’ll be ready when they tell me to play. It’s his choice. It is a little different having Marty here. It’s a different situation. It changes a little bit. Obviously, I like to play but, at the same time, in the long run, it’s good.”

Lundqvist played a career-high 73 games last season. The plan this season is to keep him around 62-65 games. So while I’ll bet on Lundqvist starting tomorrow against the Bruins, it’s a valid question as to whether he will.
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Posted by Andrew Gross on 10/22 at 05:19 PM

Lennynyr,

I did miss where you said Frolov needs offensive support.

Also, I wasn’t knocking prospects (just got to be realistic that not all of them are going to develop as we’d hope) - my statement was still about Frolov asking to cut him “a little slack”.

Posted by kovazub94 on 10/22 at 08:15 PM

Marty v. Marrrrttteeeee! On Sun? Hank’s Boston history says he is in Sat. But Sun? Biron’s MSG debut?

About

ANDREW GROSS covers the New York Rangers for The Record and Herald News, having joined the North Jersey Media Group in November 2007. Gross also covered the Rangers and New York Jets, as well as St. John’s basketball and Army football, for Gannett Newspapers and The Journal News (N.Y.). He graduated from Syracuse University in 1989 with a degree in newspaper journalism.